24 TROUT FISHING 



the places best fitted to their feeding, and these are 

 not always deep holes or large currents, or places 

 having any air of grandeur about them, but often 

 a very shallow spot, of insignificant appearance to 

 any but the thoughtful fisherman, contains a 

 good trout, and all these places are to be discovered 

 by the simple rule of their being favourable in 

 affording food to the trout, and conducive to their 

 seizing it. 



Now on these rapid streams, minor streamlets, 

 cascades, or eddies, formed by the splitting up and 

 subdivision of the main stream, the manner in 

 which the trout takes his food is peculiar, and 

 forms almost a contrast to the feeding of those in 

 deep and sluggish streams ; in them the feeding 

 fish may be seen lying near the surface of the 

 water watching for the passing fly quietly and 

 calmly, and any fly alighting near him is just 

 gently propelled towards him, or perhaps rises 

 again from the water after alighting to dap once 

 more over his anxious eyes, to whom, silly insect 

 as it is, it displays its beauty and calls forth per- 

 chance admiration from him, examining its form 

 and symmetry and scrutinizing its very condition 

 and plumpness of body, till now the ephemeral 

 beauty being within easy reach, the trout, fully 

 satisfied with his leisurable inspection, gives one 

 stroke with his tail and secures his prey. How 

 widely different is the course pursued by the trout 

 on the rapid stream, for here he well knows that as 

 soon as the fly has alighted on the water it will be 

 instantly carried away by the current, and if missed 



